Pesci Is Lord Of Slapstick And Slums In Shallow But Amusing `Super'

October 05, 1991|By OWEN McNALLY ; Courant Film Critic

Joe Pesci, who was so convincing in his Academy Award-winning role as a coldblooded killer in "GoodFellas," is just as efficient at slaying the audience with laughter in his frenetic role as a slumlord in "The Super." If there is anything super about this shallow, simplistic fare, it would have to be Pesci's hyperkinetic gift for physical comedy in his pratfalling, gyrating performance as loathsome Louie Kritski.

But no matter how hard Pesci pratfalls and gyrates, he can't disguise the fact that this gag-filled, sometimes amusing flick isn't much better than a decent, half-hour TV sitcom stretched out to 82 minutes.

But it is fun to loathe and laugh at Louie, who gets a taste of his own medicine. Louie's housing code violations land him in court, where he is sentenced to live under house arrest in one of his own rundown hellholes for 120 days. Louie is a mean-spirited, bigoted rich white man who has been wallowing in the lap of suburban luxury, thanks to the fortune generated by rents from the rathole tenements his dad, Big Lou (Vincent Gardenia), has owned and ignored for years.

Slumlording is a much-honored Kritski family tradition.

Big Lou, the overlord of all slumlords, has made a high art out of strong-arming his tenants while letting rats, roaches and rot run rampant in his rents.

The difference is that for Big Lou bigotry is big bucks made from the misery of his black and Hispanic tenants imprisoned by poverty in his death-trap dwellings.

Vincent Gardenia positively blooms in this role fertilized liberally with vulgarity. He is the perfect patriarch for Louie, the bad seed who's every bit as mean and greedy as his despicable dad.

Big Lou's philosophy is rooted in his credo that you can get buildings cheap thanks to three things: "Death, divorce and destitution." What does Big Lou do to maintain a building after swooping it up at a dirt-cheap price? "Nothing," is his resounding answer and heartfelt advice to his son and heir to the Kritski

empire of crumbling hovels.

Louie is pretty much a genetic carbon copy of his dad.

But his character begins to alter when he has to live in a dump where, as he sadly notes, rats have turned the bathtub into their own private Jacuzzi.

Little Louie starts on a pothole-pitted road to a spiritual conversion from rat to philanthropist.

Along this rocky road to redemption, Pesci gets to do a lot of funny, physical stuff.

His repertoire of slapstick ranges from falling through his slum pad's floor to getting wiped out in a pickup basketball game with slick neighborhood dudes. They con Louie into thinking he's something much more than just a stumbling, white munchkin on the asphalt court.

As Louie begins to move toward some sense of human decency, he gets a little bit of help from a variety of characters. For some inexplicable reason, they see some glimmering of a heart of gold lurking under his Scrooge-like insensitivity and yuppie arrogance.

Even aside from Gardenia's tour de force as a forceful boor, "The Super" is furnished with several creditable performances complementing Pesci's virtuosity as a vulgarian. Ruben Blades is amusing as a street-smart tenant who gives Louie several hard but rewarding lessons in life.

Madolyn Smith Osborne is good as Naomi Bensinger, a bright, beautiful housing-authority lawyer who prosecutes Louie and checks to see that he corrects his countless building code violations.

You know "The Super" is a fairy tale far removed from reality when Naomi is charmed by the horny, toadlike Louie. You keep waiting for Naomi, the beauty, to kiss Louie, the beast, and transform him into a prince.

Stacey Travis snuggles comfortably into her role as Louie's airheaded girlfriend, a sex kitten who is revolted by his new home in the slums. Beatrice Winde is a lot of fun as one of the tough-minded tenants who just won't take any guff from little lewd Louie.

Rated R, the film is overflooded with obscenities that keep flushing out of the two Lous' loo-like mouths.

THE SUPER, Directed by Rod Daniel; screenplay by Sam Simon; director of photography, Bruce Surtees; music composed by Miles Goodman; edited by Jack Hofstra. A Largo Entertainment release playing at Showcase Cinemas, East Hartford and Berlin. Running time: 84 minutes.